1. Social Strategies

Liberal-leaning viral-content site Upworthy has lost 46 percent of its traffic in the past two months, following a change to Facebook's News Feed algorithm that promotes higher-quality content. It's a cautionary tale about what can happen to startups that are overly reliant on Facebook's whims. --Business Insider

2. Communication Cues

Scientists have discovered that the human brain now recognizes emoticons--those cutesy faces created by clever use of punctuation symbols--the same way it does a real face. So if you thought it wasn't possible to change the human neural response through techie pop culture, think again. ;) --Popular Science

3. Getting Personal

Yahoo Labs has rejiggered its research focus to gather information that will help the company display search content and create future products more closely tailored to users' interests. The struggling tech company has made numerous hires and spent untold amounts of money on the effort, showing the growing importance of personalization to content companies’ strategies. --MIT Technology Review

4. Screen Time

Consumers spent almost 10 minutes more per month using smartphone apps this year than last, and, on average, they currently spend 60 hours each week looking at content across multiple devices, according to Nielsen's 2014 Digital Consumer report. The big question is, are your marketing strategies following these trends? --Nielsen

5. The Power of Mr. Clean

If you find yourself in a sticky situation, here's a silver lining. A recent study shows that employees at companies that face an ethical dilemma develop stronger job satisfaction if they see the situation handled well than if it hadn't occurred in the first place. --Harvard Business Review

6. Obamacare Delay

The Treasury Department said it will delay Obamacare's coverage mandate's penalty another year for small businesses with 50 to 99 workers. Though the additional time is welcome, it isn't the relief many business owners are looking for. --Inc.